Rent the Runway Is a Listing to Be Depreciated -- Heard on the Street
Rent the Runway Is a Listing to Be Depreciated -- Heard on the Street
By Laura Forman
勞拉·福爾曼(Laura Forman)著
Leave it to a fashion company to dress itself up for the big show.
讓一家時裝公司為這場盛大的時裝秀着裝吧。
Ahead of its public offering next week, Rent the Runway Inc. said in a securities filing Monday that it is seeking a valuation of as much as $1.5 billion on a fully diluted basis -- roughly half a billion dollars more than where it was valued in March 2019 before the pandemic temporarily kiboshed the need for any kind of wardrobe other than sweatpants.
在下週的公開募股之前，Rent the Runway Inc.週一在一份證券申報文件中説，在完全稀釋的基礎上，該公司正在尋求高達15億美元的估值，比2019年3月疫情爆發之前的估值高出約5億美元，當時該公司暫時不再需要運動褲以外的任何服裝。
Like so many companies going public these days, Rent the Runway is either profitable or unprofitable, depending on which equation you use. In its prospectus it cites "gross profit excluding product depreciation." The company says the metric is used as an indicator of the cash gross profit available to cover its costs, expenses and capital expenditures.
就像如今許多即將上市的公司一樣，Rent the Runway要麼盈利，要麼無利可圖，這取決於你使用的方程式。該公司在招股説明書中引用了“不包括產品折舊的毛利”。該公司表示，這一指標被用作可用於支付成本、支出和資本支出的現金毛利的指標。
Conveniently, the calculation is flattering for all seasons. For the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2021, Rent the Runway's prospectus shows a gross profit margin excluding product depreciation of 54%. Meanwhile, on the basis of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, the e-commerce company hasn't made money since spring 2019.
方便的是，這個計算在所有季節都是令人愉快的。在截至2021年1月31日的財年，Rent the Runway的招股説明書顯示，不包括產品折舊的毛利率為54%。與此同時，根據調整後的利息、税項、折舊和攤銷前利潤(EBITDA)，這家電商公司自2019年春季以來一直沒有盈利。
Rent the Runway, which makes money through subscription and one-time fashion rentals in addition to a newer resale offering, describes its business as a "closet in the cloud." While it is true that most of that model allows women to wear what they want without having to own any of it, this description has a lot of stretch. The fashion company uses technology and data to better personalize styles for its customers, inform demand for its brands, and augment lifetime value and return on investment for its own business. The business itself exists beyond the confines of the internet, though.
Rate the Runway除了提供較新的轉售服務外，還通過訂閲和一次性時裝租賃來賺錢，該公司將其業務描述為“雲中的衣櫥”。雖然大多數這種款式確實允許女性穿自己想穿的衣服，而不必擁有任何衣服，但這種描述有很大的誇張之處。這家時尚公司利用技術和數據為客户更好地個性化款式，告知對其品牌的需求，併為自己的業務增加終身價值和投資回報。不過，這項業務本身並不侷限於互聯網。
Ultimately, Rent the Runway deals in physical clothing that has to be physically worn. An essential cost to such a closet, then, is depreciation -- assets that physically fly across time zones and experience physical wear and tear. Hems get stepped on at work. Sequins fall off at weddings. Red wine pretty much always stains.
歸根結底，Rent the Runway經營的是必須實際穿着的實物服裝。因此，這樣一個壁櫥的一個基本成本就是折舊--即在物理上跨越時區、經歷物理損耗的資產。裙襬在工作時會被踩到。亮片在婚禮上會掉下來。紅酒幾乎總是會沾上污漬。
Furthermore, Rent the Runway's assets also arguably depreciate in terms of style. Once an outfit is déclassé, it likely can't be rented or resold for as much. Inventory is key to Rent the Runway's business: The company says it has 18,000 styles across more than 750 designers in sizes ranging from 00 to 22.
此外，Rent the Runway的資產在風格上也可以説是貶值了。一旦一套服裝變得時髦起來，它很可能就不能以同樣高的價格出租或轉售了。庫存是Rent the Runway業務的關鍵：該公司表示，它有來自750多名設計師的18,000種款式，尺碼從00碼到22碼不等。
Somewhat similar businesses haven't felt the need to add filtered metrics. Consider Netflix, a company that Daniel McCarthy, assistant professor of marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, reminds us dealt in physical DVDs, rather than streaming subscriptions, when it went public back in 2002. While its discs depreciated with each change of hands, its S-1 filing shows only unadjusted gross profits, which grew 31% from 2000 to 2001.
在某種程度上，類似的企業並不覺得有必要添加過濾後的指標。以Netflix為例，埃默裏大學(Emory University)戈伊蘇埃塔商學院(Goizueta Business School)營銷學助理教授丹尼爾·麥卡錫(Daniel McCarthy)提醒我們，Netflix在2002年上市時，經營的是實體DVD，而不是流媒體訂閲。雖然它的光盤每一次易手都會貶值，但它的S-1申報文件只顯示了未經調整的毛利潤，從2000年到2001年增長了31%。
By contrast, Rent the Runway is going public on the heels of a tough year, asking investors to consider what it can be, rather than what it recently has been. For the year ended Jan. 31, 2021, revenue fell nearly 39% and active subscribers by nearly 59% versus the prior year, largely because of the pandemic.
相比之下，Rent the Runway在經歷了艱難的一年後即將上市，要求投資者考慮它可能是什麼，而不是最近的樣子。在截至2021年1月31日的一年中，收入同比下降近39%，活躍用户同比下降近59%，這在很大程度上是因為疫情。
So is this business fashion-forward or out-of-style? Founded over a decade ago, Rent the Runway has an appeal that has been relatively limited. The company had fewer than 144,000 subscribers -- both active and paused -- as of Sept 30, according to an amended S-1 filing published Monday. While Stitch Fix, a younger company that sells new clothing, boasts more than four million active clients, Rent the Runway says it has served 2.5 million customers across all its offerings in its lifetime.
那麼，這項業務是時尚前衞還是落伍呢？成立於十多年前的Rent the Runway的吸引力相對有限。根據週一公佈的一份修訂後的S-1文件，截至9月30日，該公司的訂户不到14.4萬人--既有活躍的，也有暫停的。雖然Stitch Fix是一家銷售新衣的較年輕公司，號稱擁有400多萬活躍客户，但Rent the Runway表示，它在其所有產品中都為250萬客户提供了服務。
One issue could be a lack of marketing. The company says it has spent less than 10% of its total revenue on marketing since its founding, signaling mostly organic growth. It notes an unaided brand awareness of just 20% among U.S. women ages 18 to 45 with a household income of $50,000 or more. That suggests a sizable opportunity, assuming there is broad interest.
一個問題可能是缺乏營銷。該公司表示，自成立以來，用於營銷的支出不到總收入的10%，這表明該公司基本上實現了有機增長。報告指出，在18歲至45歲、家庭收入在5萬美元或更高的美國女性中，僅有20%的女性在沒有幫助的情況下獲得了品牌知名度。這意味着，假設存在廣泛的利益，這是一個相當大的機會。
Positively, Chief Executive Jennifer Hyman said in a LinkedIn post in late May that active subscribers were up 93% from the company's Covid-19 low in May 2020. As of Sep. 30, active subscriptions still remain down about 16% from where they ended fiscal 2019, Monday's amended prospectus showed.
積極的一面是，該公司首席執行長海曼(Jennifer Hyman)5月下旬在領英上發帖稱，活躍訂户比2020年5月該公司新冠肺炎的低點增長了93%。週一修改後的招股説明書顯示，截至9月30日，活躍認購數量仍比2019財年末下降了約16%。
With offices opening back up, Rent the Runway, which offers everything from sweatshirts to blazers and trench coats, is likely to be a beneficiary. But the prospect of burgeoning growth could present something of a Catch-22 for the company. There are likely only so many people who crave designer fashion, but adding more reasonably priced styles risks turning off those who specifically came to the platform to "rent the runway."
隨着辦公室重新開放，提供從運動衫到運動夾克和風衣等各種商品的Rent the Runway很可能成為受益者。但快速增長的前景可能會讓該公司陷入某種進退兩難的境地。渴望設計師時尚的人可能只有這麼多，但增加價格更合理的款式可能會讓那些專門來這個平台“租T台”的人望而卻步。
Meanwhile, investors this year haven't been universally excited about resale. Poshmark, the newly public social resale platform, is down nearly 76% from where it closed on its trading debut back in January, for example. One key difference, of course, is that Rent the Runway physically owns inventory, while Poshmark doesn't.
與此同時，投資者今年並沒有普遍對轉售感到興奮。例如，新上市的社交轉售平台Poshmark較1月份上市首日收盤價下跌了近76%。當然，一個關鍵的區別是，Rent the Runway實際擁有庫存，而Poshmark則沒有。
Rest assured, investors will eventually account for that.
請放心，投資者最終會對此負責的。
Write to Laura Forman at laura.forman@wsj.com
寫信給勞拉·福爾曼(Laura.forman@wsj.com)
譯文內容由第三人軟體翻譯。